Flight Training - September 2013 - 42

FLIGHT LESSON

By Andrew D. Kurtz
FLIGHT LESSON offers the
opportunity for pilots to learn
from the experiences of others.

LIMPING ALONG

PARTIAL-POWER-LOSS PROBLEMS

O

n a Friday morning in August, my wife, my dog, and I took
off from Princeton, New Jersey, in my Cessna 172M. We
were headed 50 minutes north to Cherry Ridge Airport in
Honesdale, Pennsylvania, from which we would have a short
drive to our vacation home in the Poconos. I added a quart of oil; did a

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the irregular engine performance. Upon
arrival at the magenta spot on the GPS, I
saw no windsock or parked airplanes. But
there was a long, narrow green strip.
I was still quite high, maybe 2,000 feet
agl. I normally plan the descent from about
10 minutes out so I efficiently lose about
500 feet per minute, and arrive at pattern
altitude at just the right time. In this tense
situation, however, I did not want to give
up altitude any faster than necessary, so I
was much higher than usual.
I executed a forward slip and dropped
as fast as I could while keeping control of
the airplane. I did not extend flaps. As I
arrived at Flying Dollar's Runway 20 and
flared, the airplane bounced dramatically.
I bounced perhaps three times, applied
some of the power I had, and the airplane
began to settle down onto the runway
just as it should—but I was running out
of runway: The terrain dropped off pretty
significantly beyond the runway's end.
(The airport owner later told me that
because of the slope, the locals land on 2
and take off from 20—I had unknowingly
tried to land on the downslope.)

ALEX WILLIAMSON

thorough preflight, found nothing out of
the ordinary; and runup was normal. We
took off, requested flight following from
New York Approach, and looked forward
to the weekend.
About two-thirds of the way to our
destination, the engine sound suddenly
changed. The steady rumble became
intermittent, sounding perhaps like one
cylinder had stopped firing. There was
also significant vibration.
I had been handed off to Wilkes Barre
Approach, and I told the controller I had
a situation and described it, asking for the
nearest airport. He told me about Flying
Dollar (8N4), 6.5 miles to my west, and a
couple of others further away. I was aware
that this stretch of my trip to the Poconos
offered no good options; the entire area
below was forested hills. I had never heard
of 8N4, which was a grass strip—a surface
I had never used before.
I set the mixture control to full rich,
pulled the carb heat, and verified that
the primer was locked; all the gauges and
settings seemed to be right. I even did a
mag check, and both sides maintained

I decided to attempt a go-around with
what power I had. It worked, after a
fashion; I gained some altitude and held
it. I flew a 180-degree turn at 20 to 40 feet
agl, much of which was contributed by
dropping terrain rather than by climbing airplane. I finally was on approach to
Runway 2, but I was below the runway’s
elevated end! I watched the airspeed fall
to around 40 mph, heard the stall buzzer,
watched the ground approach, and
“landed” all at one time.
Since the terrain was rising more
steeply than my critical angle of attack,
it was impossible to land parallel to the
ground without first stalling. The nosewheel and left main hit the ground first,
breaking off, and the airplane nosed over.
Thanks to our seatbelts and the dog’s
harness that strapped into the back
seatbelt, we suffered no major injuries. The doors opened fine, and I had
never shut off the fuel valves because
I was still using some power up to the
end. But there was no fire or any other
complication.
The FAA found that cylinder four had
no compression and two of the other
three cylinders had low compression.
Presumably, a valve had stuck. The logbooks from the most recent annual, just
two months prior, were in order.
While I had practiced “engine out” a
lot, I was off-balance when faced with
partial power. The intense vibration of
the engine also was unsettling; I still don’t
know if my concern about the engine
shaking off the mounts was realistic or
absurd, but it caused me to rush.
I'd considered proceeding to a known
airport, as I did have partial power, but
decided to get on the ground as soon as
possible. I don’t regret that decision.
I was so focused on best glide speed
and keeping as much altitude as possible
that I was unprepared to deal with the
fast descent needed to get to the field.
I used a forward slip, which is the only
technique I recall from training, but I
believe more relaxed circles might have
served me better.
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